Modelling Governance Structures and Climate Change Policy Communications on Community Resilience in the Canadian Arctic

The Government of Canada recognizes that climate change is now unavoidablemaking it imperative to help Northern Canadians adapt. There is evidence of adaptive capacityas local communities are forced to adjust; however, these adaptive strategies tend to be reactiveand localized in nature. There is therefore an increasing need to develop integrated regionalclimate change policies. I argue that an ecological health approach based on complexitymodelling can inform climate change policy in the Canadian arctic. I propose a two-phaseinstitutional mapping procedure in order to identify and understand multiple stakeholderperspectives or ways of knowing about climate change resilience. A key problem is tounderstand how – in particular, indigenous knowledge is currently integrated into climatechange policy-making about the Canadian Arctic. I propose two interrelated projects: 1.systematic 'mapping' of institutional structures with climate change policy agendas aimed atenhancing community resilience in the Canadian Arctic; and 2. a communication modelillustrating how indigenous knowledge and climate change policy information ‘flows’ betweenmembers of these climate change policy networks.